And Who……?

Q OPINION – Now that we finally have a law which protects animals, especially important to locals who tend to allow their pets to run wild, be abused and eat scrapings from tossed out garbage, who is going to enforce this piece of legislation?

Certainly, I applaud the new animal protection law, but if it is against the law to leave poop on the streets and sidewalks…do we call 911?

Once again we have a law or regulation without teeth. It is nothing less than the same rules of the road that are rarely enforced except the most obvious infractions.

Law is limited to enforcement and not good intentions. “Fear” is the X factor.

The fear of being ticketed, going to prison is why we, as a society, adhere to law and order. In a society without enforcement, it is chaos at best and in Costa Rica law enforcement is indeed selective.

We seem to always adopt the “do good” rules but seldom if any of the 22 police agencies offer up protection.

The best and easiest example is traffic control and the most complicated are human trafficking. The laws are rarely enforced.

The judicial system in Costa Rica is a turkey dance, allowing crimes from misdemeanors to felons who are set free on a daily basis and roam our streets in seek of new and improved victims.

Both police and transit cops are in short supply. The prisons are horribly overcrowded to the point where human decency becomes a moot point. And so goes our expectations of protection from crime because enforcement and conviction are so terribly limited.

Animals of all shapes and forms will not be protected, although this law is intended to do just that. Pets are especially abused and easy targets because there is no place to call “home” and enforcement of protection is a wish and not a fact.